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Innovation Culture ‘No room for complacency in a competitive world’ HR can lead innovation by fostering a culture of diversity and openness, and by exploring out-of-the-box thought paradigms. Dr Santrupt Misra, Aditya Birla Group How do you perceive the strategic role of HR in nurturing a culture of risk-taking and innovation? HR plays a very critical role. HR is tasked with creating a people-centric culture, that not only proactively manages talent but creates an environment which encourages risk-taking and innovation. At the basics, a culture of openness, tolerance and respecting alternate perspectives is integral to spawning innovations. It has got to be in the DNA of the organisation and its HR orientation. That is the core. And I shall come back to this later. One has to look at factors that stoke innovation and risk-taking. I believe volatility and uncertainty are good stimulants for innovation. Yet another equally important catalyst is diversity—of people, backgrounds, perspectives, and experience. And it is HR that is responsible for creating that kind of diversity. Diversity is no longer an option. The recruitment strategy can be purposefully structured so as to ensure that diversity is not left to chance, but created by design. If it delivers on this paradigm, then HR significantly contributes to the process of innovation. A vibrant source of innovation is invariably organisational culture. Is it empowering? enabling? encouraging voicing of multiple views? and embracing non-standard perspectives and mavericks? HR is the custodian of an organisation’s culture and values. It plays a pivotal role in building an inclusive environment—one where innovation can thrive. At the formal level, this is achieved through innovation-specific training programmes, knowledge sharing among people, putting in place processes to recognise conformity to company culture, or counselling those who do not imbibe it. HR plays a significant role in recognising and rewarding innovation and career planning too. 32 INDIAN MANAGEMENT NOVEMBER 2015
Training also entails encouraging people vis-a-vis strategic thinking—guiding them to discover their own thinking patterns. If those who are innovative move to significant positions in an organisation, then it emits positive signals across the board. HR leaders themselves have to be innovative. How best can HR harness people’s power vis-à-vis innovation? Here HR’s responsibility pans out in the areas of hiring, creating a culture of innovation, training and rewarding out-of-the-box thinking, and providing exposure to innovative organisations and processes. At the Aditya Birla Group, there are a host of processes through which we leverage our HR mechanisms and business processes to build in innovation as a natural component of our culture and processes. During recruitment, we assess abilities we have as an organisation, identify the gaps, and identify areas that need a different perspective and use this to our advantage. It is for an HR leader to encourage people to think about the ‘big idea’ they would like to pursue. For example, if the CHRO of the Group’s cements business recruits sales people with an FMCG background, then he is pursuing a big idea and trying to bring in diversity. We have invested immensely in innovationspecific skills training and set up several platforms to spark innovation. Workshops and knowledge integration programmes showcase innovations. There are internal competitions as well. To cite an example, the Aditya Birla Awards for Outstanding Achievement recognise individual as well as team innovations. Presently, a competition is underway, where we are goading our younger workforce to outline ways in which the entrepreneurial spirit can be promoted in the organisation. Training is not just about enhancing innovation skills. It also entails encouraging people vis-a-vis strategic thinking—guiding them to discover their own thinking patterns, and encourage positivity. Some time back, to encourage lateral thinking we had conducted a workshop series on Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. It was very interesting and insightful because we had Prof. De Bono actually encouraging people to discover their pattern of thinking. At a different level, we tried to build the flavour. Of course such efforts may not be necessarily referred to as ‘innovation’. You know labelling does not always elicit a positive response and create the desired impact. Our idea is to cash in on different experiences and capabilities. Let me give you an example—we create cross-functional teams wherein people from different backgrounds try to solve a problem. We recourse to it as a means to building innovation as a natural path. Furthermore, we also have started many initiatives for women, young people, non-Indian managers, and in the newer disciplines such as digital technology, sustainability, and risk management. INDIAN MANAGEMENT NOVEMBER 2015 33
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